Hockey

The Canadiens give their fans wings against the Red Wings
Félix Forget
The Canadiens give their fans wings against the Red Wings
Credit: DansLesCoulisses.com

After losing their first game of the season last night, the Canadiens were back in action today, taking on the Detroit Red Wings. Despite yesterday's loss, Martin St-Louis didn't make a single change to his skating lineup.In fact, the only change came in front of the net: Jakub Dobes defended the Montreal cage.

The Red Wings, playing their first game of the season, were keeping an eye on John Gibson's debut with the club.Here's the home team's lineup:

Just like last night, the Canadiens allowed the first goal of the game. It took less than four minutes for the Wings to open the scoring, withcaptain Dylan Larkin scoring his team's first goal of the season, the 100th in their history.

On the other hand, the Canadiens hit back hard before the end of the period. And just like yesterday, Zachary Bolduc and Oliver Kapanen were at the heart of the Habs' offensive push,both scoring their second goals in two games.

Then, at the very end of the first period, a third player hit the target for the Habs this season: Mike Matheson scored his team's third goal.

Noah Dobson picked up his first point in a Habs uniform on the sequence.

After 20 minutes, the Canadiens had a 3-1 lead.

In the second, the club kept the pedal to the floor, as they added a fourth goal to the tally.The goal was initially credited to Alexandre Carrier, then later ruled that Bolduc scored it… before giving it back to Carrier. And it's not impossible that we'll end up giving it back to Bolduc.

Then, on the powerplay, Juraj Slafkovský (no doubt about that one) scored his team's fifth goal.Free wings in a game against the Red Wings, that's concept.

After 40 minutes, the score was 5-1 in favor of the Habs. We were treated to a much quieter third period, when no goals were scored.We were, however, treated to a bit of breaststroke…

Final score: 5-1 Montreal The Canadiens return to action on Saturday, when they travel to Chicago to take on the Blackhawks. Spacer title='Prolongation']- After a loss last night, the Habs got their first win of the year by beating a club playing their first game of the season, and doing so in front of their homefans. It's an important win against a division rival who, in effect, is likely to be competing with the Canadiens later this year in the playoff race– Jakub Dobes was really good tonight. He was a little lucky at times (Alex DeBrincat missed some golden opportunities), but he made sure that the Habs dominated the scoring despite a game that was much closer than you'd think.

– Zachary Bolduc continues to impress with the Habs. The Québécois was once again solid tonight, and continues to make his GM look good for having picked him up in a trade – Mike Matheson is off to a great start. The duo he forms with Noah Dobson is really, really solid… by the way,

facebook icon Share twitter icon Tweet linkedin icon Share
Copied!